appliedlips
Posts: 1580
Joined: 1/30/2005
Status: offline
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Everybody makes good points and I think people arguing for being public have just not been exposed to the negatives, personally. Doesn’t anybody wonder why you don’t hear from many good privy diggers from the Midwest on these forums? I probably post more than most but I am still very careful what I post. I am a ROOKIE compared to a lot of diggers in this part of the country. It’s not that the digging is not good here, guys have just paid the price. Cities like St. Louis have probably produced as many good bottles as anywhere with maybe the exception of Philly & Brooklyn. Hell, there are pontilled sodas from there that sell for only $20, I would say a few bottles have been dug. Don’t see many stories in the old bottle mags or newspaper articles though. This is for good reason, and it isn’t greed. Help me out guys, I know there are some members that don’t post from this part of the country, feel free to chime in.
Nothing personal, but I always find that when these discussions come up it is always guys who don’t dig privies that have the opinion that they are an endless resource. Do you Western diggers have an easy time finding undug pre 1870 pits? If you did you could fill the piggy bank digging them, nowadays. How hard would it be for a newcomer who had no knowledge of the area to find pits. In St. Louis and other Illinois river cites, old holes are almost impossible to find undug or are covered with concrete and asphalt. I can still find a good number of spots in Ohio but most of the prime spots are long gone.. I’ll invite any out of towner to come try there luck in Zanesville, I hear Wheeling is no picnic, either. Zane & Craig, I bet Steubenville is full of undug spots, right? Towns that are dug this hard where done so for a reason, not by accident. Just like anything else 90% of the good bottles are found by 10% of the diggers. On top of that 90% of the bottles come out of 10% of the privies. These prives are sometimes found in groups in certain areas of certain cities. Any veterans, disagree? Those guys digging a lot of bottles have been around for a long time and have paid their dues. I will try to give them that respect. If we make it hard for them to access good sites our supply will dry up. There are good dumps waiting to be found but most of us are left digging the ones the guys in the 60’s,70’s & 80’s didn’t bother with. Not that they were undiscovered.
What most collectors don’t understand is MOST small town privies are worthless, almost all country privies are a waste of time, and even some large cities are almost impossible to dig productive privies in. I am sure most of the large east coast cities have endless opportunities for digging because this is where most of the talk comes from. I love hearing the stories like we all do and try to share some of my own because that and a “little” knowledge is all I have to give. I am always happy to take a new digger out and show him the little bit I know but I am not giving it away to the world. Most of the good diggers I know and have talked to recently here in the Midwest, are certain privy digging will be a thing of the past, in the near future,here. Maybe, I am wrong and I hope that I am. If I am not, it sure is going to suck for our kids. We need good digging spots and opportunities to bring people that don’t have “money” into the hobby. With these forums and eBay, it is easier than ever to find information on digging or collecting. The mass media offers no benefit to the hobby in my opinion. It’s not the end of the world but why not play it cool and enjoy what we have? Good luck digging and shoe collecting.
< Message edited by appliedlips -- 3/7/2008 9:29:57 PM >
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When life drops a big dump on ya, DIG IT!
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